MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

6/16 Extra bases

Kosuke Fukudome had what Mike Quade called a “career day” on Thursday, going 3-for-4 with a single, RBI triple and three-run homer. He also threw out Rickie Weeks who tried to stretch a single twice.

Fukudome is batting .304 off right-handers and .388 at home so far. He had at least three hits in a game for the seventh time this year and as a double shy of the cycle. It’s the fifth time he’s driven in four runs in a game, and one shy of his career high of five RBIs. And he seems to be the perfect leadoff man, batting .301 in 44 games there.

The homer off lefty Daniel Herrera was big.

“I think I might have to have a party,” Fukudome said.

* Starlin Castro is batting .340 with 21 runs, nine doubles, five triples and 19 RBIs in 34 home games this year. He’s batting .394 in his last eight games after going .154 in the first six June games.

* Milwaukee’s Zach Greinke gave up eight runs and struck out 10. He’s the first pitcher to do that since Ryan Dempster did on May 22, 2003, against Atlanta when he was pitching for the Reds.

* Taking three of four against the division champs is big. The Brewers weren’t happy with the result.

“It was tough for me to watch that game today,” Milwaukee manager Ron Roenicke said. “I didn’t like the way we were pitching, we didn’t field well. I thought we swung the bat well, and that was good to see. Usually, we get five runs for Zack and I feel pretty good.”

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